More about Dancing In Cool Neon Electroluminescent Wire!

We got a note from our client, Andrea Aranda, who is producing a show in San Francisco, in which she and her troupe will be performing in their EL wire costumes, and they got all of the wire and connections etc. from Cool Neon!

For one night only, the best of Bay Area World Dance are together on the Dance Mission stage! Join producer Andrea Aranda and her company Urban Mirage as they welcome a host of phenomenal dance artists including mistress of ceremonies Ginger Snap, Ahava, Rose Harden, Sassafras, Malia Defelice, The Ladies of the Latin Symbolics, Kacopieah, Ariyana La Fey and Shaunte.

It is a dance allegory loosely based on the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The dance is approximately 25 minutes in length. It features Cool Neon’s electroluminescent wire, 2.6mm high bright wire. Each costume is actually two costumes in one (e.g. an owl & serpent, man & serpent, woman & owl).
I control the costumes using two, six circuit wireless controllers that I had designed and built for this dance. The specific circuit that is activated determines which costume is visible. Each of the 12 circuits (per costume) is programmed on a timeline with the music. Each costume has approximately 250′ – 300′ of 2.6mm high bright wire and is powered by a single 12 volt battery pack with approximately 12 blue fish drivers. Additionally there are props (bats, flowers, snake, etc.) and a full stage set element (tree branch with fruit) that are all controlled via the same wireless device and their on/off sequence is also programmed on a time line with the costumes.

And then Joe explained “The smaller phone we got at a thrift store. I gutted it, painted it black, and fabricated some mechanisms into a vegetable can to make the number dial animatable. Back-lit the number dial with LEDs.”